College President Salaries Rise With the Cost of Higher Education
Who could have guessed that this would happen?
Anthony Hennen reports at Red Alert Politics.
College president salaries continue to rise with the cost of higher education
A new survey of college presidents revealed an uptick in presidential compensation as students complain about rising costs in higher education.
The median salary for the top chief executive at private nonprofit colleges was $436,429, compared to $428,250 for those at public colleges, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
At private colleges, 32 presidents earned more than $1 million, and two at public colleges surpassed $1 million.
College costs have continued to creep upward, and presidential salaries have followed suit.
Median compensation for private college presidents increased almost 6 percent from the previous year, CNN Money noted. For public colleges, the Chronicle noted a higher rise of almost 7 percent.
Lee C. Bollinger, president of Columbia University, was the top private earner with a $4.6 million total compensation deal, followed by University of Pennsylvania’s Amy Gutmann ($3 million), High Point University’s Nido Qubein ($2.9 million), Yeshiva University’s Richard M. Joel ($2.5 million), and Vanderbilt University’s Nicholas S. Zeppos ($2.1 million).
Rodney A. Erickson, at Pennsylvania State University at University Park was the top public earner at $1.49 million. R. Bowen Loftin at Texas A&M University was the only other public university president to earn at least a million dollars in compensation with $1.1 million.
High Point University, a small liberal-arts school in North Carolina, is well known for its strategy of attracting students with its amenities and comfortable campus.
High salaries for college presidents aren’t a major source of higher costs, but can frustrate students who struggle to make tuition payments.
When base pay for public colleges is taken into account instead of total compensation, the top colleges are the University of Texas system, Washington State University, University of Houston, University of Delaware, and Stony Brook University. For private colleges, the top ones are New York University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Connecticut College, and University of Southern California.
College president salaries continue to rise with the cost of higher education (Red Alert Politics)
Comments
They can certainly contribute to wage stagnation on college campuses.
A 6% raise for the top campus salary is like a 50% raise for a good portion of the campus. I’m not calling for socialism, but responsible distribution of raises is not the same thing. There should be a diminishing % raise mark on the top jobs on campus considering the amount that it entails and the huge gap between these jobs and the majority workforce of college (but no it’s those corporations that have the evil 1%ers).